Early life

Family

Finch was born as Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch[3][4] in London to Alicia Gladys Fisher. At the time, Alicia was married to George Finch.[2][5][6][7]

George Finch was born in New South Wales, Australia, but was educated in Paris and Zürich. He was a research chemist when he moved to Britain in 1912 and later served during the First World War with the Royal Army Ordnance Depot and the Royal Field Artillery.[8] In 1915, at Portsmouth, Hampshire, George married Alicia Fisher, the daughter of a Kent barrister.[5] However, George Finch was not Peter Finch's biological father. He learned only in his mid-40s that his biological father was Wentworth Edward Dallas "Jock" Campbell, an Indian Army officer, whose adultery with Finch's mother was the cause of George and Alicia's divorce, when Peter was two years old.[2] Alicia Finch married Jock Campbell in 1922.[5]

Early childhood

George gained custody of Peter, who was taken from his biological mother and brought up by his adoptive paternal grandmother, Laura Finch (formerly Black) in Vaucresson, France. In 1925 Laura took Peter with her to Adyar, a theosophical community near Madras, India, for a number of months, and the young boy lived for a time in a Buddhist monastery.[9] Undoubtedly, as a result of his childhood contact with Buddhism, Finch always claimed to be a Buddhist. He is reported to have said: "I think a man dying on a cross is a ghastly symbol for a religion. And I think a man sitting under a bo tree and becoming enlightened is a beautiful one."[10]

Early career in Australia

After graduating, Finch went to work as a copy boy for the Sydney Sun and began writing. However he was more interested in acting, and in late 1933 appeared in a play, Caprice, at the Repertory Theatre.[12]

Finch was discharged from the army on 31 October 1945 at the rank of sergeant.[15]

Post-war career in Australia

After the war, Finch continued to work extensively in radio and established himself as Australia's leading actor in that medium, winning Macquarie Awards for best actor in 1946 and 1947.[14] He also worked as a compere, producer and writer.

Visit of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and return to Britain

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh toured Australia in 1948 with the Old Vic Company. They attended the Mercury production of The Imaginary Invalid on the factory floor of O'Brien's Glass Factory starring Finch. Olivier was impressed with Finch's acting and encouraged him to move to London, his birthplace. He left Australia for good in 1948.

British career

When Finch arrived in Britain, Olivier became his mentor and put him under long-term contract. His first big break was being cast in James Bridie's play Daphne Laureola at the Old Vic supporting Edith Evans. This was a significant critical and commercial success and established Finch in London immediately.[18]

He was soon cast in his first British movie, playing a murderous actor in Train of Events (1949). Critic C. A. Lejeune praised his work in the London Observer commenting that he "adds good cheekbones to a quick intelligence and is likely to become a cult, I fear."[19]The Scotsman said "he should be regarded as one of the most hopeful recruits to the British screen."[20]

He had a small role as an Australian prisoner of war in The Wooden Horse (1950), the third most popular film at the British box office in 1950. His performance as a Pole in Daphne Laureola led to his casting as a Polish soldier in The Miniver Story, the sequel to the wartime morale boosting film Mrs. Miniver; unlike its predecessor, it was poorly received critically.[21][22]

During this time, Finch continued to appear on stage in various productions while under contract to Olivier. Finch's closeness to the Olivier family led to an affair with Olivier's beautiful but increasingly unstable wife, Vivien Leigh, which began in 1948, and continued on and off for several years, ultimately falling apart due to her deteriorating mental condition.[23]

In 1953 he appeared in his first Hollywood movie, Elephant Walk (1954), shot in Ceylon and Los Angeles. The circumstances of production were turbulent; filming started with Vivien Leigh in the lead but she had a nervous breakdown during production and had to be replaced by Elizabeth Taylor. The experience helped sour Finch on a Hollywood career and he would only work occasionally there for the rest of his career.

Under contract to Rank

Towards the end of 1954 Finch's contract with Laurence Olivier was about to expire and he instead signed a seven-year contract with the Rank Organisation worth £87,500 to make one film a year for them. "We are going to build Peter into a major British star", said Earl St. John, Rank's head of production, at the time.[26]

Stardom

However, he was then cast as an Australian soldier in A Town Like Alice (1956), which became the third most popular film at the British box office in 1956 and won Finch a BAFTA for Best Actor. He followed it with The Battle of the River Plate (1956), playing Captain Hans Langsdorff. This was also successful financially and British exhibitors voted Finch the seventh most popular British star at the box office for 1956.[27]

Finch returned to Australia to make The Shiralee (1957), one of his favourite parts, and the tenth most popular movie at the British box office that year. He followed it with another Australian story, the bushranger tale Robbery Under Arms (1957), which did less well. However exhibitors still voted Finch the third most popular British star of 1957, and the fifth most popular overall, regardless of nationality.[28]

The Nun's Story and international stardom

Finch's career received a boost when Fred Zinnemann cast him opposite Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story (1959). This was an enormous financial and critical success and established Finch's reputation internationally.

Finch co-wrote and directed an award-winning short film, The Day (1960) and announced plans to direct a feature but it did not eventuate. He won his third BAFTA for Best Actor for No Love for Johnnie (1961), although like Oscar Wilde, the film lost money. He was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (1963) and filmed scenes in London, but when the film was postponed he withdrew; the role was recast with Rex Harrison.

Later career

Finch's career received another boost when Ian Bannen dropped out of the lead in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). Finch replaced him and his performance was rewarded with another BAFTA for Best Actor and an Oscar Nomination.

Network

Finch was asked if he wanted to audition for the part of news presenter Howard Beale in Network (1976), written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet.[2] The audition was successful and Finch played the role. The movie was his biggest commercial and critical hit in years.

We all say we're going to quit occasionally. I'd like to have been more adventurous in my career. But it's a fascinating and not ignoble profession. No one lives more lives than the actor. Movie making is like geometry and I hated maths. But this kind of jigsaw I relish. When I played Lord Nelson I worked the poop deck in his uniform. I got extraordinary shivers. Sometimes I felt like I was staring at my own coffin. I touched that character. There lies the madness. You can't fake it.[32]

Personal life

Finch was married three times. In 1943, he married Romanian-born French ballerina Tamara Tchinarova; they worked together on a number of films. They had a daughter, Anita, born in 1950. They divorced in 1959, after she discovered his affair with actress Vivien Leigh in California.[33][34][35] He then married South African-born actress Yolande Turner (née Yolande Eileen Turnbull); they had two children together, Samantha and Charles Peter. During their marriage, Finch had an affair with the singer Shirley Bassey. Bassey had a daughter, also named Samantha, born in 1963; Bassey's husband at the time, the openly gay film producer Kenneth Hume, believed that Finch was her biological father.[citation needed] Finch and Turner divorced in 1965.[2] In 1972 Finch married Mavis "Eletha" Barrett, who was known as Eletha Finch.[2][36] They had a daughter together, Diana.[35]

Biographies

In 1954, the Australian journalist and author George Johnston wrote a well-researched series of biographical articles on Finch, his life, and his work, which appeared in the Sydney Sun-Herald on four consecutive Sundays, which were certainly the first detailed account of Finch's life to be published. Finch later provided the inspiration for the character Archie Calverton in Johnston's novel, Clean Straw for Nothing.[37]

In 1980, American author Elaine Dundy published a biography of Finch titled Finch, Bloody Finch: A Biography of Peter Finch. That year, his second wife, Yolande Finch, also published a posthumous account of their life together, Finchy: My Life with Peter Finch. Another biography had previously been published by his friend and colleague Trader Faulkner, in 1979.

According to an entry in Brian McFarlane's The Encyclopedia of British Film, republished on the British Film Institute's Screenonline website, Finch "did not emerge unscathed from a life of well-publicised hell-raising, and several biographies chronicle the affairs and the booze, but a serious appraisal of a great actor remains to be written."[38]

So This is Hollywood – Apollo Theatre, Melbourne, 1935 – with Robert Capron, Lou Vernon and Thelma Scott[48]

Under the Big Top – touring show with George Sorlie, various Queensland towns, 1936, playing Herbert Hughes in Laughter of Fools by H.F. Maltby, Smithers in Married by Proxy by Avery Hopwood, Peter in Fair and Warmer by Avery Hopwood, Hunter in Ten Minute Alibi by William Armstrong – all directed by William McGowan with Murray Matheson, Rosalind Kennerdale, Leslie Crane, Eva Moss, Norman French, Julia Adair and George Douglas.